cereal production in India, proved far less suc-
cessful in raising the output of its staple food, rice.
Again, agricultural production kept only narrowly
ahead of population growth. The emphasis on
industrial development delayed the investment
necessary to accelerate the growth of farming. By
world standards, Indian yields were low, though
that at least left scope for spectacular improve-
ment. But such improvements would not occur
without social change and without greater
resources being devoted to the education of
India’s numerous peasantry. The states of India
whose influence predominated on questions of
land reform were controlled by the very landown-
ers who had little interest in bringing it about.
Consequently, reforms such as land distribution
to the landless or to those peasants without viable
holdings were not implemented to any great
extent. Mass poverty persisted in India in the
1990s.
Nehru died in 1964. His death left a political
vacuum. Would so flawed a party democracy
survive after so many years of stability under
Nehru’s leadership? The Congress leaders had to
choose between the pro-Western conservative
Morarji Desai, a former finance minister, Lal
Bahadur Shastri, an elderly follower of Gandhi,
or, on the left, Nehru’s daughter, Mrs Indira
Gandhi. Their choice fell on Shastri. He held the
premiership only briefly, incongruously a period
notable for the war with Pakistan, before dying
suddenly in 1966 while at Tashkent seeking to
make peace. Indira Gandhi succeeded to the pre-
miership. In the Congress Party, Mrs Gandhi
defeated her rival Morarji Desai and went on to
win the elections of 1967; the reverence accorded
to her father was an enormous asset, though the
Congress Party lost seats. But Mrs Gandhi’s
opponents in the Congress Party, especially the
party bosses in the states, had not given up the
struggle against her. In 1969 the party split.
Indira Gandhi was expelled but carried the major-
ity of the party in the Assembly with her, which
became known eventually as the Congress (I)
Party. She called another general election in
March 1971 and completely defeated her oppo-
nents in the rival Congress Party. Her interven-
tion in Bengal when civil war broke out in
Pakistan in 1971, the ensuing defeat of Pakistan
by India and the creation of Bangladesh made her
a popular national leader and enabled her to win
state elections too in 1972.
Indira Gandhi, lacking the moderation and
restraint of her father, established a strong, cen-
tralised and personal style of ruling. She sought
to dominate state politics completely by appoint-
ing her own nominees to the chief posts. Was her
motive personal power alone? The old bosses had
certainly blocked all radical land reform and
Indira Gandhi tried to help the peasants. But her
new policies promoting the ‘green revolution’
and the anti-poverty programmes had only
limited success. She soon ran into trouble. There
were food shortages, outbreaks of violence in
some states and countrywide protests, until a
court ruling in June 1975 declared her 1971 elec-
tion to be invalid owing to irregularities. She was
ordered to be suspended from holding office, but
she put a sudden end to opposition moves to dis-
credit her by requesting the president to declare
an emergency.
Indira Gandhi now put in question her father’s
work and the future of Indian democracy as civil
rights were suspended, press censorship imposed,
thousands of opponents imprisoned and the elec-
tions due in 1976 postponed. Particularly resented
was her arrogant son Sanjay, not least for his laud-
able but insensitive campaign to limit population
growth by persuading peasants in the villages to
submit to sterilisation. Disaffection against the var-
ious arbitrary measures of the government grew.
Mrs Gandhi, out of touch with the true feelings
of the country, called an election in December
1977 and was defeated by a coalition of opposi-
tion parties known as Janata. In a perverse way,
she had now produced a functioning democracy
with the first defeat of the governing party. But
Janata was simply a coalition of convenience to
oust Mrs Gandhi. Led by the venerable Morarji
Desai it restored normal government but in 1979
fell apart, allowing Mrs Gandhi to return to power
after the general election of January 1980.
She relied increasingly on her son Sanjay, until
his death in an accident, as well as on other
members of her family and loyal retainers. She